So much hate for how people are treating CasterSemenya. How nice to see that it's something that keeps cropping up. Obviously the problem isn't with the athletes, it's with society's dumb gender binary bullshit.

People are assholes. Gender and body bullshit is making me angrier than usual.

Sometimes it bothers me that people have such ridiculous opinions on things or get all surprised about things that absolutely happen just because they've never had to experience them. You lucky little shits, get the fuck off of my back.

The sad thing is that I'm thinking this about people who are basically my friends. :(

People are such good for nothing, worthless fuckers.

EDIT: In case you have maybe misread me over the years, somehow, I will not tolerate disrespectful treatment of anyone for being transgendered or intersexed in my journal. If you must be disrespectful, you can go do it in one of the millions of places where assholes will agree with you.

There can be a slightly increased risk of cancer, I guess, but usually gonadectomy is just done to feminize a patient. Certainly, she should see a doctor, but surgery is not necessarily the outcome that should be decided upon.

Ummmm... how fair do you think it is, letting an individual who's biologically male compete against biological females?

It hasn't been made public yet, but Semenya seems to suffer from a disorder called AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome) which means "she" is biologically male with male sex chromosomes (XY), but something went wrong during gestation and instead of developing external male genitalia, a rudimentary vulva developed.

Whether Semenya wants to identify as male or female is completely up to "her" and I agree that pressuring "her" to have surgery is ridiculous, but this person should never be allowed to compete against women, simply because they wouldn't be competing on equal terms.

Let's face it, men and women are different, and I'm perfectly comfortable with that. A society with only one gender would be unbelievably boring.

Semenya isn't a dude trying to get smuggled into the girls' race. And I don't care how the other chicks feel. Boohoo, you got beaten by a woman with a genetic predisposition toward being athletic. How much that predisposition has to do specifically with her intersex condition is extremely contentious. Certainly all people with AIS don't go out and become good athletes.

Moreover she obviously identifies as female and your scare quotes are unnecessary and rude as hell.

Whether or not Semenya identifies as female or not has zero to do with this matter

The point here is that due to "her" genetic make up, "she" has testosterone levels 3 times as high as a normal female, i.e. Semenya has an obvious advantage when competing against women. Semenya's tissues have been doused with testosterone from a very early age, which has resulted in "her" muscles, bone structure, etc. to develop very differently from an actual female's.

I don't think that they should take the 2009 gold medel from her, as you pointed out, there was no conscious cheating from "her" part. However, letting "her" continue competing against women is unfair.

Unnecessary and rude as hell, you say? And how is that? I was merely voicing my opinion, just as yourself, and I, unlike you, managed to keep a civil tone.

If men and women are "not so different" as you say, maybe they should all compete against each other? Is that what you would call "equal" and "fair"?

It is unnecessary and rude because she clearly identifies herself as female and you are attempting to undermine her gender identity in the shittiest and pettiest way possible. It is basically the refuge of someone bent on being an asshole because someone else is different. Good job!

I'm freezing this thread because I don't want that shit here. Read up on gender theory and intersexed people before you try to argue with me again on this subject.

You're right, this problem keeps cropping up and no one's bothered to figure out how to deal with it yet. I hate that gender segregation in sports makes it basically impossible for intersexed people to be athletes. Even fucking awesome kickass people like Caster Semenya.

Also: seriously, two news sources calling her a hermaphrodite? We're really not over that yet, as a society? Fuck.

Man, we talked about "hermaphrodites" in my anthropology class over the summer. She used the term intersexed too, but then would talk about "true hermaphrodites" which is like... there's pretty much no such thing. :/ I guess it was good that she was trying, but yeah. Society is way, way not over it. :( A situation like this just exposes clearly and succinctly how we continue to view gender as strictly binary and then get mad at the people who don't fit into one category or another.

I read somewhere that the public found out about the result of the tests before she did. im really really hoping thats a stupid rumour.

It's sad that her achievements have been overshadowed by all this stupid 'gender freak!' crap. i guess its educational to the general public though...if only journalist did some research and actually got it right!

Ive read a few quotes from her and she seems so well adjusted. its fucking awesome.

D: why do they even? What's the point? She's a girl and has always identified as one, the tests don't change anything other than satisfying people's prurient weirdo interests about other peoples' junk. Fuck society.

It's amazing to me that it's even an issue, though I guess it shouldn't be.

I know it's stupid to hope, but maybe this will start a discussion in our society, and across the world, about the issues people like Semenya face. God willing, maybe it will bring some awareness and understanding. Dare to dream, right?

I came here looking for wacky BTTF fan-things and stumbled into this instead. I almost want to debate about whether people are good or not, but that would be sort of pointless in this context because I'm quite sure we are pretty much absolutely in agreement about asshattery level of the lovely folks at IAAF and anyone who agrees with them, including "henrymandy" elsewhere in this comments thread.